Contemplating buying first Mac product. Need advice.

[Nemisis]

Hi,

Here's a little background: I am a student majoring in Computer Science and I have never had an Apple product besides a First gen iPod Touch. I always liked Apple products, but they just seemed so expensive to me. But, lately, I am getting into mobile development. I have created an Android app, and am wanting to dive into iOS development.

Well, this Friday, a campus store is having a sale of all their products, including the new line of Macbook Pros. I already get a student discount, so it will be a total of about $200 dollars off. So, I am really thinking about buying one. However, I JUST bought a Samsung qx410 laptop about 3 months ago.

So, first question: Should I buy one? Second, which one? I am leaning towards either one of the 13 inches, but the 15" seems more powerful. So, I guess I'd like to know how much of a performance difference there is between the two. Like I said, I am a computer science student, so I will be doing a lot of software development with heavy programs like Eclipse and xCode (not sure how this program runs, though).

Thanks in advanced to any answers!

~Nemisis

 

[Looon]

You already have a laptop why are you so desperate to waste your money on something you don't need?

 

[skyrider007]

You don't "need" another laptop. But I'm sure you could make some money by reselling it BNIB on eBay if you can get the $200 discount on top of the student discount. Good investment I think.

 

[maclaptop]

Your new QX410 is an exemplary laptop. To replace it with a Mac would be a complete waste of money. I use both OS X & Win 7, for the work that I do. They are both very close in ease of use and functionality. The difference between them is simply not worth burning through the cash.

Even if price is no object, you're still going to spend a sizeable amount of valuable time making the switch. Not to mention the additional time required to acclimate to the nuances of OS X.

 

[iMackPro]

for a CS major you should be able to tell what the differences in power are, i mean i know you don't use macs but specs are specs right lol? they just run smoother in OS X

but vie been telling everyone and their uncle to go with the higher end 15" just because its such a beast. the 13 is really powerful too though. You'd be fine with a 13 inch, but if you plan on really pushing xCode and everything might as well go 15. lets just say you wouldn't notice xcode being slow on the 13, but you'd notice it being pretty fast on the 15